Dēngzhǐ yīnyuán jīng 燈指因緣經
The Sūtra on the Karmic Connection of Lamp-Finger translated by 鳩摩羅什 (Kumārajīva, 譯)
About the work
T703 in one fascicle is a Buddhist avadāna — a karma-tale in narrative form — translated by Kumārajīva (344–413) at the Yáoqín 姚秦 capital Cháng’ān. The Taishō witness reads “後秦龜茲國三藏鳩摩羅什譯” (“translated by the Latter-Qín Kuchean Tripiṭaka Kumārajīva”). Date bracket follows 鳩摩羅什’s Cháng’ān translation period: 401–413.
Abstract
The text recounts the karmic biography of Dēngzhǐ 燈指 (“Lamp-Finger”) — a figure born in Vārāṇasī to a prosperous Brahmin family. Although he was born with light shining from his fingers (whence his name), he loses the light through pride and arrogance, becomes a wandering beggar, and only recovers his fortunes by hearing the Dharma from the Buddha. The text presents the standard avadāna structure: a curious natural phenomenon (light from fingers) is explained by reference to a past-life Buddhist deed (offering a single lamp to a previous Buddha); the present-life moral degradation is explained by a separate past-life error of pride; and the present-life recovery is enabled by Buddhist teaching.
The text opens with a meditation on the merit of the fútián 福田 (field of merit, puṇya-kṣetra) — a frame characteristic of the late-fourth- / early-fifth-century avadāna genre — and integrates the teaching of the merits of lamp-offering (施燈) with the wider doctrine of karmic causation. As 鳩摩羅什’s rendering, the work is in the polished idiomatic Chinese for which he is celebrated; this is one of the smaller of his translations but a popular example of the yīnyuán 因緣 (nidāna / karmic-connection) genre.
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Histoire du bouddhisme indien. Louvain, 1958 (background on the avadāna literature).
- Strong, John S. The Legend of King Aśoka. Princeton, 1983 (on early Buddhist avadāna literature).
No standalone English translation located.